Mrs. Rena MacLean has sent the following lines from her present home in Kirkcaldy as a reflection of her ancestry from islands that she has never yet seen. Her ancestor was a Donald MacLean from Tiree who was on Coll as a Gaelic Schools teacher for about six years from 1838 -1844. He married a Coll girl, a Mary MacKenzie, daughter of a Chelsea pensioner who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

SOJOURN INTO THE PAST

Above me, in space, floats a golden beam
Which holds within a long-cherished dream;
A dream which I know I must make come true;
No peace for me until I do.

There are two lovely islands I'm longing to see,
One of them Coll, the other Tiree,
Way out in the Atlantic, they nestle with pride,
Looking refreshed with each incoming tide.

They are tiny, so tiny, in comparison to some,
Like Lewis and Skye and Islay and Rum
But shimmering white sands, the deep blue of the sea,
They sparkle like diamonds and sapphires, delightful to see.

They're the lands of my ancestors which makes them unique,
Especially to me with my proud Scottish streak;
The MacLeans and MacKenzies, long gone to the grave
Were a part of the history of Scotland the Brave.

Come the dawn of the day when my dreaming is o'er
And I walk where my forebears have traversed before,
Then my golden beam will float down from space
And appear as a glow on my overjoyed face.

- and from Maggie MacDonald of 5, Broomhill Gardens, Partick, who wrote the following lines back in 1894:

Dear isle of the Western sea,
Farewell I must take of thee
Reposing so peacefully
Where angry waves roll.
Though far away I be,
Fondly I'll think of thee
Sweet island of Coll.

Happy were those days of yore
Spent on thy rugged shore
Days that will come no more;
But in dreams to my soul
Still in my heart I'll store
Those memories for evermore
Sweet island of Coll.